Timberwolves-Thunder: These small market candidates do not only compete for an NBA championship

When Giannis Antetokounmpo's term comes to the Milwaukee Bucks this summer, it will confirm that its commitment to the competition for championships is greater than its loyalty to the green and cream.

And it will be a warning to small market candidates in Oklahoma City, Minnesota and Indiana: While their relationships with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Anthony Edwards and Tyres-Haliburton stand on solid soil, this good atmosphere only extend as long as the Thunder, Timberwolves and steps can continue to assert themselves.

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It was 15 years ago since Lebron James left the Cleveland Cavaliers for Miami Heat, a “decision” that produced the NBA's anticipation. In the coming years, a generation of superstars, including Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard, Kyrie Irving, Paul George and Jimmy Butler, will fled smaller markets for larger cities. Oklahoma City, Minnesota and Indiana were among the fan bases that felt the hardest effects.

The thunder, Timberwolves and Pacers superstars developed from the reconstructions and constructed competitors around them. It is not unlike how the bucks once built around the gods, which exercised its power from the organization, and asked them to do trades every time an extension was due. First, it was Jrue Holiday. Then it was Damian Lillard. In between, Milwaukee won a title and made it all worth it.

If you do not win, the pressure on a front office, his superstar, increases several folds. The Dallas Mavericks were so overwhelmed that the thought of building a sustainable winner in Luka Dončić – and the possibility that he could organize himself in the middle of the process – that they exchanged him before things came to his head.

Where did the Mavericks Dončić work? The Los Angeles Lakers. Small markets are not given a superstar under the Night cover, because you have to ask yourself whether he will leave them. As long as we can remember since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Milwaukee for LA, superstars have been attracted to the target cities of the NBA, in which more money has to be earned-for players and teams and things for whom you have to spend.

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Dončić was an extreme, but finally the bill is due. Players age, contracts increase, luxury taxes rise up. The most recent collective agreement is said to have opened the championship windows almost as soon as it opened. We are only now starting to see their effects on the next generation of superstars of the NBA, as the roster in relation to Antetokouplo and the Nikola Jokić have deteriorated from Denver Nuggets.

Once we thought that they could be more Lifer in their small markets, but we now have to take into account the possibility that they too are spawns of the empowerment era. While your franchise companies have been satisfied with them for a decade, longer than the Cavs James, everything ends. NBA assets are written off, and as soon as nothing is left to exercise power, your eyes begin to hike, as is the case with Antetocounmpo.

In which phase in this process are Gilgeous-Alexander, Edwards and Haliburton? Let us examine.

Oklahoma City becomes expensive

Chet Holmgren from Oklahoma City and Jalen Williams are too due in the summer of 2026, if Gilgeous-Alexander can be justified An extension of five years $ 380 million. The costs for these three – OKCS BIG DRIV – will probably cost most of their current depths, since next summer they also have the options of the players of various sizes on Isaiah Hartenstein, Lu there, Cason Wallace and Kenrich Williams.

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If the Thunder won this year's championship, you will have a single season to return it before the CBA harvests what sown it. The Boston Celtics faced the same reality this season in their title defense. Before Jayson Tatum suffered his devastating injury, they were due to changes to an expensive roster.

Except no team is better equipped to fill up his depth for a large three, since OKC holds such a profound draft picks as any other team in the league. There is no guarantee that these picks around them become championship caliber pieces. Consider Jokić's nuggets. When she lost important contributors to the free agency, only Christian Braun developed to replace her. Other picks were mostly hubs that set a second blanket for the nuggets this season. General Manager Calvin Booth cost his job. And in a way, head coach Michael Malone also cost his appearance. The NBA costs for depreciation are steep.

There is also no guarantee that the thunder stays healthy. Again: Think of the Celtics that have observed how injuries and illnesses you prevent you from submitting your best title defense. Series over. Season over. A era? The NBA assets can change immediately, which is why it is so important to maximize the present.

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Shouldn't the thunder win this year's title, what is better than a striving for Antetocounmpo? All of these assets do better than any other for a big swing this summer. This starts with Antetocounmpo, which has Fixed his eyes In larger markets, it would previously want to sign in Oklahoma City, where he and Gilgeous-Alexander could form a dynamic duo or discover the chemistry of the badge. But Antetocounmpos Arrival would not change the calculation, which would come for the thunder. This would only increase the pressure next year, before increasing costs and a reduced side line -up.

Is that as good as in Minnesota?

The Timberwolves recognized early on what they had in Anthony Edwards, and accordingly acted the rights against six draft picks in the first round in July 2022. This led to the appearance of the Western Conference final in the past year, but the financial costs also came for them quickly, and they exchanged Karl-Anthony Towns for Julius Randle and Donte Divincinzo-A.

This latest success spit – the first taste of the franchise company since the early 2000s – is both a blessing and a curse. It led Edwards, one of the most exciting young superstars in the league. It also gave him a touch of how it is, and he will expect to expect so much, if not forward.

In the next season, the wolves will owe 105 million US dollars to Edwards, Gobert and Jaden McDaniels, and that is before Randle and Naz Reid make decisions about whether a few player options worth 45 million US dollars should be picked up. Contracts for Divincenzo, Mike Conley and Rob Dillingham push them across the salary limit and the luxury tax. It costs them this summer, if not Reid or Randle, Nickeil Alexander Walker.

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You will be a little worse and the costs will increase. The roster will only be undermined if the years of Edwards' contract decides. Apart from some brave movements, this could be as good as possible. Nobody wants to admit it.

It is difficult not to prevent these things, even if the wolves enjoy the greatest success in the Franchise story. They follow this year's conference finale 2-0 and it feels worse. Suddenly the four years in Edwards' contract do not seem to be so long. Or seem longer to him.

Indiana has decisions to her

The Pacers made a great trade like the wolves when Haliburton's rookie contract came to an end and dealt for Pascal Siakam in January 2024. Together they work on maximum contracts that will eat 55-60% of Indiana's salary limit for the next three seasons. This was not an idea of ​​a candidate to how the Haliburton's heroic deeds gave the Pacers home advantage in the conference final.

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We thought the Pacers were just a move of more serious disputes, and that could still be. BetmGM doesn't give you a great shot. However, win this year's title and who is someone who tells you how the blanket for a team of a young, ascendent is superstar? You have already opposed the chances.

In any case, they will be in the middle of a math equation. Myles Turner is a free agent at the end of the season. His $ 20 million content was a bargain last year and he will expect an increase. The Pacers can afford it because Andrew Nembhard, Aaron Nesmith and Obi Toppin have affordable contracts for the foreseeable future. But then Indiana locks himself into a team that we believe that it has already found his ceiling.

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The Pacers could act against the vacation some of these contracts and what is left of their capital design for a missing piece, similar to Milwaukee's decision. This opened a window that was only as wide in the end as the season in which the goats had won. Age, injuries and finances have been in Milwaukees since then. They had one last hand to play and it was the wrong one because Lillard wasn't the answer.

It is so difficult to win a championship how difficult it is to satisfy a superstar in a small market. A misstep and a window closes. And there are still a few steps that have to be taken for each team that is neglected. No team could possibly be better positioned to maintain the success than the thunder, and even you will feel the financial crisis in the period of a season. Decisions for Pacers and Timberwolves come even earlier.

If Gilgeous-Alexander, Edwards or Haliburton continue from Oklahoma City, Minnesota and Indiana, the NBA will only be to blame, because this is what the new CBA of the league has developed.